GatherIQ helps silence a ‘silent killer’

SAS’ GatherIQ initiative has welcomed yet another organisation: the Sepsis Alliance. Sepsis is a form of blood poisoning caused by infections, which can lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death. Several million people a year die of this unknown yet dangerous disease.

By joining SAS’ GatherIQ initiative, the Sepsis Alliance hopes to rise the awareness with the general public. Because, as Thomas Heymann, President of Sepsis Alliance, put it: “More Americans have heard of Ebola, a nearly nonexistent condition in the US, than sepsis – a condition that affects more than 1.6 million Americans every year.”

GatherIQ is a crowdsourcing effort from SAS that brings together thoughtful, concerned citizens to lend their skills to help answer questions posed by nonprofit organizations on the front lines of global challenges. GatherIQ volunteers will analyze data created in SAS Visual Analytics from years of nationwide sepsis surveys to determine areas most in need of education and awareness and how they’ve changed over time.

By raising the awareness, the Sepsis Alliance hopes to help contain this deadly but very treatable condition. Joining the GatherIQ initiative may prove a valuable step in better silencing this silent killer.